


Action!

by lizziepro



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-22
Updated: 2012-11-22
Packaged: 2018-06-05 17:59:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6715438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizziepro/pseuds/lizziepro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p> Wu Fan has dreams of being the next Lars Von Trier, while Chanyeol just wants to make people happy.This partner film  project is obviously going to be a disaster, right?... </p>
            </blockquote>





	1. "Do you ever smile?"

If there was one thing Wu Fan loved, ** _it was film_**.  
He loved it more than he loved most things, including his newly acquired super fluffy cute alpaca stuffed animal he named Ace.   
**He got it from his grandma, shut up.**  
And when he dressed it up, it was hard to not just sit and stare at it until his eyes fell out of his skull.  
But that would be bad and probably scare Ace, but what does that even matter, since he's a stuffed animal?

Anyway, Wu Fan's film obsession was second to none.  
He would watch pretty much any movie from any country by any director that specializes in any genre with any range of production value.  
He especially had a thing for Latin American cinema.  
Not that he knew any Spanish to speak of, but he felt he was cultured.  
Or at least more cultured than the other kids in his film class.

He was doing exceptionally well in that class, to be honest.  
He wasn't ashamed to admit it either.  
He had turned in A projects all semester on his own, and he planned to keep it that way.

His films lacked a little in the scripting, containing one too many twists more often than not, or simply running dry and not affecting the crowd in any way.  
That was fine with him.  
Film wasn't about the dialogue.  
_Film was about the imagery._  
Film was about what he could capture on the SD card and bring to others who might not get to ever see these places and things he records.

**The image was his inspiration.**

All of his work was beautifully shot, and he knew it.  
He thrived on perfection in the image.  
It was his lifeblood.  
A beautifully shot film, with exquisite cinematography, and amazing camerawork........

 

It was indescribable.

He would get this feeling, this rush, and it would overtake his brain and his body, and he would feel nothing but elation.

**It was perfect.**

_**He was addicted to that feeling.** _

And it was that feeling that he wanted others to experience from his films.

Too bad that wouldn't happen now with this goddamn partner project for the final.

How did he get so unlucky?

The most fucking obnoxious kid in the class who wouldn't know what good film was even if a Truffaut dvd hit him square in his stupid squinty eye.

Wu Fan was frustrated to say the least, and he hadn't even met with the kid yet.

He just knew it would be hell though.

Absolute Hell. Loud, stupid, obnoxious Hell.

Park Chanyeol was a character, perfect for any film, just not any that Wu Fan would find worthy of his precious time.

Chanyeol's hair was dark, grimy, and unkempt to the max.

Wu Fan swore there were rats living in it, but maybe those random squeaks were actually from Chanyeol's mouth and not the rodents that possibly infested his hair.

He wore clothing that never really let you on as to what clique he might fit into, but he he had his own style somehow.

What a joke...

He smiled way too fucking much.

He was extremely loud.

**He was abrasive.**

_**A bad abrasive.** _

The first week of class Chanyeol's project was purely comprised of different angles and shots of various depths that all focused on him laughing.

Extreme wide shots of him sitting alone in a plain white room on a stool, cackling.

Medium close ups of him rocking back and forth on said stool, clapping his hands as he roared.

Close ups of the stupid fucker's face twitching.

Extreme close-ups that only depicted his teeth as his jaw was agape with humor.

That smile.

That dumb, obnoxious smile.

**The asshole got an A+ on the project.**

Obviously Professor Jung thought the kid was some kind of genius the likes of Ingmar Bergman or another Swede from the 1960s, even calling him up to help him film his current project.

Wu Fan saw right through the so-called genius and into the pure stupidity the boy seemed to ooze at all times.

Wu Fan was currently sitting in his editing station, witnessing this stupidity occur in his Thursday night production course. He was editing, or vaguely attempting to edit, a project he'd shot outside of class for a film festival in the city, but he was moreso wondering at this point what he'd done to be put in such an annoying position.

Chanyeol was 3 seats over, voice booming and hands clapping, as he laughed uproariously at something he must've said, or maybe it was just a speck of dust in the air. Who knew? It was Chanyeol. There were 4 girls seated around him at his editing station, where he was now heaving from lack of oxygen, and the girls all gave their best to get Chanyeol to notice them among the other girls in the group.  
While it seemed Chanyeol was just enjoying the idea of making the girls laugh, the girls obviously had something different in mind.

Wu Fan wondered how this idiot got all these girls to fawn over him when Wu Fan could barely get a girl comfortable enough to ask her to be in his films.

Granted it could be a little creepy when a 6'2" man with extremely broad shoulders and other various intimidating features, such as hands bigger than any girl's face, asks you randomly to be in one of his movies.

Wu Fan didn't realize this though.

He just thought all girls were shy.

_He was wrong._

Wu Fan continued to drag and drop pieces of footage aimlessly around the projects screen, adding various purposeless effects to ease his boredom, when Professor Jung came bursting through the door.

" _Park Chanyeol, you and your fangirls find your seats. You can date them outside of class and film it for submission if you like, but not in my classroom. None of that shit in here,_ " Professor Jung said as he set down his messenger bag and pulled out a couple of folders.

" _What? I don't want to date any of these girls, hyung..._ " Chanyeol stated, face scrunched from obvious confusion.

A collective sigh was exhaled by the group of now wholly rejected girls as they walked to their stations, murmuring about how they have to quit school and move to Russia because now they have nothing to live for.

Wu Fan let his head fall to his desk in frustration at Chanyeol's utter obliviousness to the situation.

" _Way to disappoint the masses, Chanyeol_." Professor Jung stated, now standing over his main desk, holding himself up with his palms flat on the surface.

**Stupid fucking Chanyeol.**

_"Alright everyone_ ," Professor Jung clasped his hands together and stood up, beginning to pace back and forth at the front of the room, " _You have 2 months left of class, but realistically only 7 classes left to meet here. So, today I'll assign you your final project partners-_ "

" ** _AWWWWWWWWW. COME ON PROFESSOR!_** " the girls whined, writhing in their chairs.

" _Yeah Yonghwa hyung! Can't we pick ourselves?!"_ Chanyeol earnestly tried to plead, even dropping to his knees.

" _No Chanyeol. And besides, I pick at random anyway, so there's no grand scheme planned to fuck any of you over. Keep your shit together guys._ " Yonghwa said as he pulled a bag of paper pieces, presumably containing the names of classmembers, out of his messenger bag.

" _You guys ready_?" He asked, smirking at his students.

For as talented as he was, he was a major troll. Maybe that's why he got along so well with the students. That and the girls thought he was gorgeous.

Wu Fan was gorgeous.

Why didn't anyone want to help him work?

The collective nod from the class signaled Yonghwa was in the clear to choose partners without the risk of chairs flying at him at a bad pick.

The choosing began and went fairly well. After about 8 pairs matched, there were 2 pairs left to make.

Wu Fan was livid by this point as it was only him, Chanyeol, and 2 girls left.

There was no fucking way he'd get paired up with Chanyeol.

" _Wu Fan! Let's see who your partner is..._ " Yonghwa said, reaching into the now dismal looking bag.

**No. Fucking. Way.**

The paper was pulled.

Wu Fan closed his eyes.

He didn't really hear the name Professor Jung called in reference to his partner for the project, as he'd shut himself out of everything happening in the classroom, but the deep booming "YES!" and the clapping that followed were enough to turn Wu Fan's stomach in knots.

Wu Fan opened his eyes, pleading silently with Professor Jung who stood at the front of the class, giggling to himself and returning Wu Fan's look by raising his eyebrows and shrugging his shoulders.

Wu Fan then silently promised himself he'd never again go to another premiere put on by Professor Jung.

Though he knew that was a lie.

Wu Fan was fully awoken from his mental murdering of his professor as a body plopped down roughly in the seat adjacent to his own and a hand tapped his shoulder.

" _Are you okay, dude?_ " Chanyeol asked, looking legitimately concerned for Wu Fan's safety. His eyes had grown big and his voice had gotten a little higher.

" _Wha- Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"_ Wu Fan replied, shaking his head a bit and leaning back in his chair to cross his arms and look judgingly at the obscene body now next to him.

When did the room start smelling like old, rotting pecan pie?

_"You looked like you were trying to take a mental shit on Yonghwa hyung..."_

_"I wasn't."_

_"Are you sure?"_

_"Yeah."_

_"I bet you're lying."_

_"What the fuck?"_

_"I'm Park Chanyeol."_

_"I know._

_"And you're Wu Fan."_

_"I. KNOW."_

_"I like your name."_

_"Why?"_

_"It's not like mine."_

_"Okay."_

_"Do you ever smile?"_

_"What?"_

_"Do you ever smile? I've never seen you smile."_

_"I smile."_

_"You're lying again."_

_"I'm not! It just takes a lot to make me smile I guess. I'm not you. I don't smile at the fact that the lightbulbs in the room are functional."_

_"So you've noticed my smile?"_

_"What?"_

_"You should smile more, Wu Fan. I bet you'd have a handsome smile."_

Wu Fan sat there gaping at the younger man as Yonghwa told everyone to get to work on their projects and leave if they'd like.

Chanyeol smiled and stood up in front of a still gaping Wu Fan.

 _"Let's meet tomorrow at 8pm. At the coffee shop. I put my number in your phone so you'll know it's me texting you to remind you of our meeting. See ya, Dragon._ " Chanyeol said with a smile and a wave, exiting the classroom.

**WHAT?!**

_**When the hell did Chanyeol even have time to put his name and number into Wu Fan's phone?!** _

Wu Fan watched as the boy left the room and then quickly averted his attention to his now ringing phone on the desk.

**WHEN DID EVERYONE ELSE LEAVE THE ROOM?!**

He really needed to get his shit together.

He picked up his phone and read the screen.

" _Happy Virus"_ graced his screen with a photo of his new project partner in all his smiling glory.

" _Hello?_ " Wu Fan answered timidly. He had no idea what was happening anymore. For all he knew, Chanyeol would find a way to jump through the phone and back into the room. Because he was Park fucking Chanyeol.

" _Hi Dragon!_ " Chanyeol yelled on the other end.

" _Why're you calling me Dragon?"_

_"Cause I'm willing to bet money you actually breathe fire with a personality like that."_

_"You're an asshole."_

_"That's not a nice nickname."_

_"Neither is yours."_

_"Yes it is! Dragons are the best! They're my favorite animal, mythical or real. They're just so cool. And they're super badass."_

_"Don't sugarcoat it."_

_"I'm not! I swear~ Anyway, I called to remind you of our project meeting tomorrow at 8pm at the coffee shop."_

_"You left the room 2 minutes ago."_

_"So?"_

_"I remembered."_

_"Liar. You zoned out when I called you handsome."_

_**"I DID NO-"** _

_"It's fine. I thought it was cute. See you tomorrow, Dragon!"_ Chanyeol said happily.

Wu Fan could just hear the smile on his face.

With the click of the phone cutting off, Wu Fan put his phone in his pocket.

He put his arms in front of him on his editing station desk and let his head drop onto them.

This project was going to be quite interesting...  



	2. "You don't get it, do you, Dragon?"

There was still a chill in the air, but that was to be expected in March. The wind had picked up in the past couple of days, which made Wu Fan think that getting additional lighting for his videoshoots would be a bit more tasking than during a still period, but it was okay. He pulled a ponytail holder off his wrist and tied his long, dark blonde hair back behind his head, so he could at least see where he was going and not get hit by a car because his hair decided to be too luscious for his vision to be functional. 

He was early to the coffee shop he'd agreed to meet Chanyeol at yesterday evening in class, but he didn't mind. Punctuality was part of his charm, or so he liked to think.

He walked in and ordered a medium iced coffee, black. He liked to put in a little sugar and creamer himself, never trusting the baristas to do it for him. Because no one can make it perfect like him.

He made his way to a seat by the window and grabbed 2 packs of sugar and a creamer packet along the way. Upon sitting and mixing the additives into his beverage, he looked out the window at the people, the cars, the lights along the street. It reminded him of an old French movie he'd once watched and he immediately became a little happier. 

The warm, fuzzy feeling of elation in relation to movies overtook his body and mind.

He probably looked crazy, but he didn't care. 

He was smiling, thinking about how the scenes fit together so perfectly, but also imperfectly. Jump cuts abound, and misedited audio clips, but there was something in his heart that just sang when he watched that movie.

He felt right.

Like nothing could touch him.

And then a giant appeared at the window, plastered against the glass, waving and smiling like a fiend.

Immediately, Wu Fan was broken from his comfortable state and brought back into reality.

That ridiculous reality that didn't ever make him feel the same as he did when he watched his favorite movies.

Chanyeol came bounding to the table and sat across from Wu Fan, setting down his coffee and brownie, almost knocking Wu Fan's coffee off the table in the process.

"Hey Dragon! How are you today?" Chanyeol said, taking his jacket off and putting it on the back of his chair. He proceeded to tear open the brownie packaging and dive into the sweet treat in his hands.

Wu Fan compared it in his mind to watching a vulture descend on a dead, rotting antelope carcass.

"I'm doing okay. It's been a long day. How about you?" Wu Fan replied, still judging the massacre of sugary sustenance in front of him.

"I'm doing great! It's beautiful outside, isn't it? And my roommate is still alive, so that's always a plus." Chanyeol said, mouth filled with a mix of brownie and now whatever overly sugared drink he bought.

"Why wouldn't your roommate still be alive?"

"Maybe he could've gotten into a freak accident with the garbage disposal when I was in class! You never know! Scary things happen. So everyday he's alive I'm thankful." Chanyeol replied, food now being spit from his mouth in Wu Fan's direction.

"I see..." Wu Fan replied, wiping the residue from his cheek.

"Want to know why else it's a good day?"

"Why? The grass is growing? The sun rose this morning? You had shampoo left when you thought it was out?"

"............How did you know?"

"Shut up. Why else is it a good day?"

"I saw you smiling earlier when I showed up. I was right, you do have a handsome smile." Chanyeol replied, smirking at Wu Fan.

Wu Fan fought for air. Why was this idiot smirking?! More than that, why did that in addition to him calling Wu Fan handsome have this effect on Wu Fan's basic life functionality?!

Wu Fan caught his breath and finally stuttered a "Thanks. I guess..." to the boy sitting across from him.

Chanyeol's smirk turned into a smile.

That dumb, obnoxious smile.

Well, maybe it wasn't as obnoxious as Wu Fan thought. There was something charming about it in a way, in how it turned his whole face a different shape, affecting each feature individually from his eyes to his cheeks and his nose, even his eyebrows and chin.

"What the fuck am I saying?" Wu Fan thought, mentally scolding himself for paying that much attention to something or someone as dumb as Park Chanyeol.

"It's no problem. So, have you thought about the project yet?" Chanyeol asked, taking another huge swig of his coffee. 

"I've thought about it a little bit. I'm thinking a big focus on cityscape and the features of the city, especially at night. Like Dans Paris, but not so much nostalgic, French New Wave throwback. It would be more contemporary, appreciation, hidden beauty in the different views of the city. I think more on cinematography, really. I film a lot of location footage, and then I find actors and film them again in the locations I like best, and work with dialogue at the end."

"I've noticed."

"What do you mean?"

"I can tell how you shoot, like the progression. All of your location shots are amazing. I get chills from them, dude, but your dialogue and scripting...well, they need some work. I think I could help you with it. Really." Chanyeol said, scooting forward in his seat, now slightly hovering over the table. The newfound closeness in proximity set Wu Fan on edge a little. He hoped it would subside soon.

Why was he on edge??

"What are you saying? I'm shitty at scripting?" Wu Fan too sat up, getting closer to the boy, now swirling the remnants of his coffee in the bottom of his cup, averting his gaze to said cup.

"How long do you take to script? On average..."

"Truthfully?" Wu Fan raised an eyebrow.

"For realsies." Chanyeol looked up and returned the gesture.

"About 3 hours, tops."

"And how much effort does that take for you to produce?"

"More than it should. I can't do dialogue. I give my actors main points and then usually let them write it themselves, however they feel comfortable talking, but within my directorial needs................if that makes sense?"

"It does. And when you script, you feel dumb, and cheesy, and like you're trying too hard."

"Exactly."

How had Chanyeol known what Wu Fan was doing when he worked??

"Don't worry about being cheesy, Dragon. Scripting will always feel cheesy. It's because you're overemphasizing things and you want your actors to get the emotion. It's not dumb. It sounds dumb to you, but to an actor, the more detailed, the better."

"I still think it's dumb."

"That's where my specialty lies. I'm shameless, so scripting is no problem. I'll work for days on a script, and constantly edit. My production skill on the otherhand is a bit lax. I know it. I usually spend so much time writing that I forget to plan time to shoot or travel to different locations. So a lot of it ends up shot in my basement." Chanyeol sat back, leaning his chair on its back legs and tossing his feet onto the window ledge, looking outside at a puppy passing by.

"The echo comes from there then?"

"It's fucking horrible. But I like it. I think my style is more 1960s Swedish independent film, which is fine. I love that shit."

"I could help you with production things. Like framing and camerawork to make the shots even better."

"That would be nice, but even though we seem to fit together on this...there's something else."

"What? We were just getting somewhere!"

"You don't get it, do you, Dragon?"

"Don't get what?! We were in agreement! We had a conversation, something I never thought I'd have with you since you aren't really my favorite person, to be honest."

Chanyeol sat up in his chair, back straight against the back and arms folded across his chest. His face had turned scarily serious in this moment.

"Why do you make movies, Wu Fan?"

"Huh?"

"Why do you make movies? For festivals and for class and any other creepy, stubborn dragon videos you make?"

Wu Fan was stumped. He had just had one of the more legitimate film conversations with Chanyeol than he'd had with anyone in a long time, and now the kid was getting weird. He should've expected it though. Park fucking Chanyeol.

"I make movies because I love film. I love the idea of the image and the beauty and meaning held within the image. That it can connect people. It makes me happy."

"There's the difference."

"What do you mean? Why do you make movies?"

"Because all I want to do in life is make OTHER PEOPLE happy, Wu Fan. It's nothing to do with my immediate happiness, it's about the happiness of others. That's where my connectivity lies."

"When did you become so serious, Mr. Happy Virus?"

"When you started talking seriously about the project."

"You're Chanyeol. You don't take jack shit seriously."

"I take other people's happiness seriously, therefore this project is serious business."

"You're ridiculous, Park Chanyeol."

"I know," Chanyeol said, finally breaking a smile again after the discussion. The lack of smile had worried Wu Fan for a little bit, but it was nice to see this side of Chanyeol. A side that wasn't so self-absorbed.....

But maybe he wasn't self absorbed at all? Wu Fan had thought he was conceited and disgusting in every situation he'd encountered him in, but Wu Fan was also fairly stubborn and didn't like to admit when he was wrong. He liked to think it was another of his charms.

He was wrong, again.

"Okay, so if we do the whole city theme, like shooting purely in the city at night, like I proposed-"

"And I am agreeing to do right now!" Chanyeol said, shooting his hand up into the air as a symbol of his newfound agreement to the project.

"Right... If we do this, then what's our storyline going to be?" Wu Fan asked, elbows now supporting his folded hands, as he hunched over the table in his seat. Breathing into his hands, he could feel the heat reflect onto his still chilly nose.

He wondered if Chanyeol's breath was as warm as his...

"How about this couple has to find a bomb in 2 hours, otherwise their child will be thrown in the river?!"

"And you said you made movies to make people happy?"

"What?! It's a legitimate idea!"

"An idea I'm vetoing right now."

"Fine. What was your favorite cartoon growing up?"

"Why?"

"Just tell me! It'll be fun."

"And this has to do with the project how?....."

"Just do it, Dragon! I'm curious. Maybe it'll help get my creative juices flowing!" Chanyeol replied, hands now writhing together in anticipation of the answer to come from the older in the next few seconds.

"Pinky and the Brain."

"NO. FUCKING. WAY." Chanyeol shouted, standing up, fitting his hands into his crazy mop of hair.

"Don't tell me it was your favorite too?"

"IT WAS! Those two were so great! One was super great at planning, and he was super serious about their endeavors to take over the world, and the other was just happy-go-lucky, but he still definitely loved the smart one. I swear. They were the greatest. All the domination station."

"I think I liked Brain more." Wu Fan stated calmly, hoping the other might sit down after this fanboy outburst. Not that he minded. Why was everything Chanyeol was doing tonight somehow becoming cute?

"I liked Pinky."

"Are you going to start calling me Brain now?"

"No, but you're gonna end up calling me Pinky."

"No I won't."

"Just watch. It'll be instinct. And besides, we're basically them. We both want world domination and have to work hella hard to get out of our stupid cages to achieve it. And you're scary serious like Brain, good at planning basics and such, but you need Pinky. You need me! I'm your missing shamelessness, spontaneity, happy virus!" Chanyeol said, now reaching across the table and grabbing Wu Fan's shirt to shake him into believing his grand idea.

Wu Fan took the younger's hands off his collar, reluctantly........ and stated "FINE!~ We're Pinky & the Brain."

"Pinky & Dragon is more like it." Chanyeol said, again settling in his chair.

"Okay, so what did this do for you?"

"Make me like you even more."

"What?"

"And It gave me an idea. Superhero parody?"

"More than that..."

"Okay, so we have 2 superheroes, but they're competing. Like one is super serious and the other just fumbles along, yet he's actually insanely smart. Everyone thinks he's an idiot, but then some girl becomes trapped at the top of a tower. The two have been in competition for years and this is their final showdown. They meet and say whoever saves her first can remain a superhero, and whoever loses has to give up the vigilante game. This lets your nighttime footage take precedence and give the movie an awesome look and feel to it, and then we can collab on the script, even though I'll probably do most of it. It'll help you with future scripting though. I'll make sure of it." Chanyeol explained happily. He smiled the entire time, talking with his hands, and Wu Fan watched, smiling himself on the inside.

"So you're going to help me with scripting and you're okay with that being your only job?"

"For right now, yeah! I'm just happy to be working with you. If I would've been paired with one of those girls in class, I wouldn't have gotten to make a decent movie cause I'd be fighting them off the entire time." Chanyeol said this with a face that read utter disgust, like he'd just been forced to eat jellied pigs feet. 

"I don't know how you do it, Pinky." Wu Fan said, and before he could catch himself it had slipped. Upon realizing his slip up he sat straight in his chair and his eyes grew huge.

"HA! SEE I TOLD YOU!" Chanyeol laughed, clapping his hands in his seat at the embarrassment of his comrade.

Wu Fan sank down into his chair, and grabbed his coffee, drinking as much as he could as fast as he could, looking out the window the whole time. Where was that comfort he'd had earlier this evening?

"But what don't you get, Dragon?"

Wu Fan turned again to face the younger, who looked earnestly interested in the older's latest remark in reference to his groupies.

"I don't know how you get all those girls to just flock to you like that! It's ridiculous. You don't say much of anything intellectual in terms of film for the entire class, and as soon as you make some dumb off-color comment about a desk chair, the girls are heaving and huffing on the ground basically begging for you to take them home!" Wu Fan said, getting slightly heated.

"I don't know either. I don't even like girls, so it doesn't make sense to me either!" Chanyeol laughed in reply.

Wait.......................

Had Wu Fan heard right?

Chanyeol.......he doesn't-

"I'm guessing your life is the opposite then? You have trouble getting girls to get comfortable around you?" Chanyeol replied, not skipping a beat in terms of his confession.

Wu Fan had this weird knot growing in his stomach. He didn't know what it was, but it was making him nervous and clammy and the room started to spin a bit. 

Yet somehow he felt strangely relieved.

He couldn't possibly be fall-

"Dragon?" Chanyeol asked, waving a hand in front of Wu Fan's stoic face.

"Wha-? Oh, yeah. I think I have trouble because I'm kind of intimidating-looking."

"You've got that right."

"Hey now."

"What? You said it! I don't call you Dragon for nothing, you know! And I think it's because they get kind of a cold, awkward feeling from you. You're just not a good people person yet are you?"

"Well..........I mean-"

"And that's why you don't script much, because you're unsure of if you'll get actors or not."

Chanyeol knew too much. Too much without Wu Fan telling him anything at all.

"Yeah. It sucks."

"It's okay. I'll act in your movies, Dragon. And I've got a huge group of friends that live in my dorm, so we have them at our disposal too. This movie will be fine. And while we film, we can work on your people skills!" Chanyeol said, giving the older a thumbs up and smiling from ear to ear.

Wu Fan felt a tinge of warmth in his cheeks...

"Alright, well, we should meet up this weekend and script this all out and whatnot. It shouldn't take long." Wu Fan said, standing up and grabbing his coffee. 

"WHOA! YOU'RE A FUCKING GIANT, DRAGON!" Chanyeol yelled in amazement, thereby causing the whole cafe to look in their direction, and sending a definite twinge of red to Wu Fan's cheeks.

He smiled forcefully and looked pleadingly at those staring so they would just sit down and let him be.

"I know. It's part of the reason-"

"I think it's cute. It's kind of charming. I'm really tall too!" Chanyeol went to stand up but Wu Fan pushed him down to his seat again.

"I know you're tall Chanyeol. I've noticed." Wu Fan said quietly, trying to hush the younger in their public surrounding.

"Good. I hoped you would." Chanyeol says as he smiles to himself, refolding his arms in his chair.

Wu Fan sighed and looked toward the door, then back to Chanyeol, who was now looking earnestly up at him for his next move.

"I'm gonna go, Chanyeol. Text me tomorrow and we can plan to hangout this weekend and work on the project. Okay?" Wu Fan said as he began to stride toward the door.

"Yah! Dragon!" Chanyeol yelled as Wu Fan was almost out the door.

Chanyeol smiled an evil smile this time. This worried Wu Fan as he looked back at his newfound friend.

Wu Fan slowly walked back to the table he previously inhabited with Chanyeol and looked down at the seated figure.

"First lesson in people skills: if you're getting up, ask if the other person has trash they'd like thrown away. It makes you seem generous. No one likes trash, and by removing trash from the other person's possession, you make them happy. This is your new goal." Chanyeol said, matter-of-factly.

"My new goal is to become a trash-man?"

"No! You're funny, Dragon. Could you take my trash please?" Chanyeol asked, taking a hold of Wu Fan's hand and looking pleadingly into his eyes.

Was that aegyo?

Really?!?

And why was Wu Fan succumbing to said aegyo?!

Wu Fan sighed and took the trash, pulling his hand from Chanyeol's, the immediate lack of warmth surprising Wu Fan.

He made a b-line for the trash can and walked immediately out the door, not turning back for any recognition of his deed from the younger.

As he left the cafe, the wind bit at his face again. He scrunched his face and turned to look back at the shop out of instinct.

By the window, he saw a happily seated Chanyeol, scribbling in a notebook he must've pulled from his pocket. He must've sensed that Wu Fan was outside because he looked up just in time to see him in the window. His face contorted into an expression that looked like a mix of constipation and elation, but Wu Fan figured he was just being his cute self and saying goodbye since he left without one. The waving solidified that idea.

Wu Fan slightly returned the wave and smiled.

He actually smiled, and didn't try to hold it back.

This project might not totally suck after all.

Especially if it meant Wu Fan got to see more of Chanyeol.

Why hadn't that weird feeling in his stomach subsided yet?


	3. "Stare often?"

Chanyeol's dorm was more comforting than Wu Fan had anticipated. He honestly wouldn't have put it past the guy to live in an alley with a couple stray dogs, each missing various limbs and functionality of senses. Surprisingly though, Chanyeol dwelt in a space that didn't smell of excrement and old hamburgers. Instead, it smelt like clean linen and cookies. The mix was intoxicating.

Wu Fan likes to think though that this was mostly due to Chanyeol's roommate though, Byun Baekhyun. 

Byun Baekhyun, well, he had to be a saint or something to deal with Chanyeol on a regular basis like this. From what it looked like, Baekhyun led a very clean, pristine life, the complete opposite of Chanyeol. There was a huge difference alone in Chanyeol's room, and, well, the rest of the dorm. Wu Fan was constantly in awe of the place, and the cookies Baekhyun would offer him when he would come over to work on their project. They were like heaven in his mouth. Baekhyun always offered them with a smile, and Wu Fan accepted.

It didn't take long for Baekhyun to get used to Wu Fan. His height wasn't intimidating because he'd lived with Chanyeol for 2 years now, his demeanor was a nice break from the constant annoying booming of Chanyeol in the dorm, and he bathed on a regular basis without being nagged to do so. So obviously Baekhyun welcomed him with open arms as Chanyeol's friend.

After about two weeks of scripting, the boys were ready to film. They ate dinner that night at Chanyeol's, where their 2 main actors joined them. They were two of Chanyeol's friends, whether by choice or force was still unknown to Wu Fan, but either way, they were there. Their names were Kyungsoo and Jongin, both seemed to be younger than Chanyeol and Baekhyun. They ate dinner like they hadn't had a homecooked meal in weeks, and Wu Fan found out that this was exactly the case as they became subjected to dining hall food. 

"Baekhyun hyung, this dinner is amazing. I almost forgot what real rice tasted like!" Kyungsoo said as he dug into the pile of food on his plate. 

"I do my best. The perks of having a kitchen in your dorm." Baekhyun said with a smile, taking a sip of his water.

"Yeah, cause you're older than us." Jongin said, mouth full of rice and vegetables. 

"Not my fault. Yah! Chanyeol! Could you slow down a bit?! Your food isn't going to run away off the plate! We have guests!" Baekhyun yelled at Chanyeol, reaching over the table to grab Chanyeol's arm mid-path to his gaping gob.

Chanyeol stopped and looked at Baekhyun, wide-eyed. He seemed confused.

"I know it's not going anywhere, Baekhyun.....I'm just trying to eat quickly so we can go film! The night waits for no one, Baekhyun.......No one." Chanyeol replied, face growing dark... or what he thought was dark. It looked more like he was contemplating which dessert to eat at the end of the meal though, which was really serious business.

Baekhyun backed off, removing his hand from Chanyeol's arm and sitting back in his seat. He turned to Wu Fan,

"And you're friends with him, why?" Baekhyun asked, pointing to Chanyeol, who resumed the machine-like inhaling of his food.

"You're the one who lives with him after 2 years. I think it'd be better to question your sanity, Baekhyun." Wu Fan replied as he joined in the table-round judgment of Chanyeol's eating habits.

The boy literally ended up double fisting forks, shoveling food into his mouth like it was his first meal in years.

"So, what're we going to wear for our superhero costumes, Wu Fan?" Kyungsoo asked a couple minutes later.

Everything had begun to calm down, and Chanyeol was now rubbing his stomach, groaning at how full he was and how he'd "never eat again".... and then Baekhyun brought out dessert.

"Well, you'll have to wait and see. It's kind of a surprise." Wu Fan stated calmly, sipping his sparkling water. He raised his eyebrows, attempting to get Kyungsoo to believe they'd had to costumes already planned out, but really, come on. Planning superhero costumes is hard! They have to look legit! And neither Wu Fan nor Chanyeol really took time with costume design.

"You don't have costumes, do you?" Kyungsoo asked.

Wu Fan stayed silent, and looked at Chanyeol, hoping the boy would heed his silent warning to keep his mouth shut.

"Nope! They aren't done. But, Baekhyun could put something together for you guys real quick, right Baekhyun~~~?" Chanyeol said, leaning over the table and giving Baekhyun the puppy dog eyes.

It probably would've worked better had Chanyeol's face not been covered with chocolate cake and icing.

Wu Fan couldn't tear his eyes away from the younger boy.

He felt that feeling in his stomach again. It was only there when Chanyeol was around, which meant that for the past 2 weeks of scripting it hadn't receded at all.

Wu Fan decided to stop fighting it, but that didn't lessen his confusion anymore than he'd hoped, unfortunately.

He had no idea what he was going to do about it.

But something needed to be done.

"You're gross, Chanyeol-ah. But fine, Jongin, Kyungsoo, come with me. Let's find something for you guys to wear." Baekhyun stated, rising from his seat and leading the two younger boys to his bedroom.

"Don't make me too naked, hyung. It's not totally spring yet!" Wu Fan heard Jongin say as they walked down the hall. 

Chanyeol was working on polishing off his giant glass of milk he'd requested with his dessert a bit earlier, leaving Wu Fan to sit in silence and watch the boy.

Wu Fan really couldn't stop looking at him. He tried and tried, but there was something about Chanyeol that just drew him in. He didn't know he was being cute. He didn't know he was actually kind of graceful in his unabashed movements that came so natural to him. He didn't know that Wu Fan was falling for him... or at least Wu Fan hoped he didn't.

Wu Fan didn't know what he'd do if Chanyeol ever found out.

He just needed to survive this project and be done with it.

Then he'd never have to talk to this guy again, let alone forget how to breathe around him.

"You excited to go film tonight, Dragon?" Chanyeol asked, breaking Wu Fan from his staring daze. Okay, how could Chanyeol not notice by now? He had to notice, but why didn't he say anything like he had before in class?

"Mhmmm. It's going to be good. It won't be bad lugging the equipment around either if we have those 3 with us to help. Plus it's really nice out tonight."

"It is, isn't it. It's like the perfect night to start filming! All the lights in the city are working, so that's good. And public transit is up too, so we can get to where we need."

"But those things are always there."

"So?"

"So if those things are always there, then why the hell is THIS night the perfect night to begin filming?"

"Cause I get to film with you, Dragon! I've never gotten to film with you before, and you're gonna teach me so much! So it's like I'm starting to film for the first time!"

Wu Fan couldn't form words. Why did this guy say these things to him!?

"Plus, it's just really nice outside for once."

"True, hopefully Jongin won't freeze his balls off though. I have a feeling neither Kyungsoo nor Baekhyun plan to give him a superhero outfit that isn't revealing."

"Eh, it's okay. Jongin doesn't wear much clothing anyway. You're lucky he put pants on for you tonight. I don't know how Kyungsoo lives with the guy! Domestic nudity is so not cool." Chanyeol said, trying to hold back his laughter.

Wu Fan couldn't help but smile at the comment.

He'd been smiling a lot more recently. Some comment that Chanyeol would make about the tree in front of his apartment, a joke about a specific movie, Chanyeol's story about how one time he saved a cat from its litterbox because the cat seemed like it was going to drown in the litter. 

It was dumb, and Wu Fan knew it, but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy it.

"I'm glad I got picked to be your partner, Dragon. Really. I hope you know that."

"You really have no filter, do you?"

"What's a filter?"

"Nothing. I appreciate it, Pinky. Plus, you're really tight with Professor Jung, so we're sure to do well on the assignment." Wu Fan said, leaning back in his chair.

The air took on an immediate sense of awkwardness.

Chanyeol still smiled and nodded his head, but Wu Fan felt his heart drop.

Why couldn't he just be nice and tell Chanyeol the truth?

If Chanyeol didn't have a filter, then Wu Fan's filter was made of solid steel.

And it was becoming a problem.

"Yep. We'll do really well on the assignment for sure, Wu Fan." Chanyeol replied quietly.

Chanyeol then got up and took Wu Fan's plate and glass from in front of him and began to walk over to the sink around the corner in the kitchen area. 

Before Wu Fan could even think, his feet carried him to where Chanyeol was, as he began to rinse the dishes to put them into the dishwasher.

"Chanyeol-" Wu Fan began, but not a second later, Chanyeol turned into him, not realizing Wu Fan was standing in such a close proximity to him, and ran right into him with a handful of wet, grimy dishes.

He froze on the spot, Wu Fan not budging either.

Chanyeol looked up slightly to meet Wu Fan's now extremely enlarged eyes and gaping mouth. Neither broke the eye contact. Chanyeol almost looked sad at Wu Fan's presence, but the closeness was too overwhelming for Wu Fan to comprehend anything outside of the heat rushing to his cheeks and the total and complete desire to just fucking kiss-

"What the fuck are you doing Chanyeol-ah!? Why would you just dump dirty dishes on our guest?!" Baekhyun screeched as he came barreling into the kitchen, breaking the trance between the two men.

Wu Fan shook his head and backed away slowly, still vaguely looking at Chanyeol through his peripherals. 

"It's nothing! We just ran into each other! I'm only trying to help you so you don't die from getting eaten by the dishwasher, Baekhyunnie~" Chanyeol said, reverting back into his naturally goofy state of being. His eyes lit right back up and his dumb smile plastered itself across the lower third of his face, but Wu Fan felt something was off.

"Shut up! I'm not going to die from using the dishwasher, Chanyeol."

"You never know! Things like that happen all the time! Like people dying from opening the fridge! I don't want that to happen to you!" He said, flailing his hands around now.

Baekhyun sighed and stood up, looking Chanyeol straight in the eyes.

"That only happens when the fridges are old, and faulty, and there's water around the front of the fridge, and the bottom underneath the appliance. Then people get electrocuted-"

"YOU'RE GOING TO GET ELECTROCUTED?!"

"NO! I'M NOT. OUR FRIDGE IS FINE. NOTHING IS LEAKING. IT'S NOT FAULTY! I'M FINE!"

"I don't think you're fine if you're yelling about a fridge, Baekhyunnie."

"Oh my god. Wu Fan, you need to get him out of here before I kill him." Baekhyun said sternly without turning away from his roommate.

"Again, you live with him. Don't blame me for your shitty life choices."

"Wu Fan!"

"But he's right. You could get electrocuted. Just watch out." Wu Fan stated, grabbing Chanyeol's hand and leading him back to his bedroom to get the equipment and script. Chanyeol and Baekhyun were speechless at Wu Fan's statement. 

Had he just sided with Chanyeol?

The kid who doesn't make sense in anything he says?

Ever?

Wu Fan and Chanyeol reached Chanyeol's room and Chanyeol ripped his hand away from the older.

"You didn't have to side with me, you know."

"I didn't do it to help you. You were right." Wu Fan replied, looking at the equipment as he picked it up and threw it on his shoulders.

"You're lying to me, Wu Fan."

"I'm not. The whole-"

"You know... I thought you wanted to work with me because we could help each other. But I was wrong, wasn't I? All you care about is the grade."

"That's not true!" 

"You never stop lying, do you. You always have to keep your guard up, never letting anyone in. You don't have to try and be cool. It's not something that's flattering."

Chanyeol was now sitting on his bed, hands in his jacket pockets, looking up at the standing Wu Fan across the room with equipment now draped over his body.

Wu Fan strode over to Chanyeol, stripping the equipment from his person and sitting next to him on his bed. Chanyeol didn't move an inch, and somehow just that comforted Wu Fan on its own.

"Chanyeol. I'm glad we got paired up for this project not because of the grade, but because this'll be the best movie of our lives. Because we make this movie together, we'll both grow as filmmakers, and that's the goal of this, right? So we become better at making movies. I appreciate all the help you've given me, Pinky. I swear." Wu Fan said, looking right at Chanyeol. Chanyeol didn't return the gaze, but looked straight ahead toward the window.

Wu Fan still wasn't telling the truth, but this was close enough for now.

Chanyeol cracked a small smile.

"Wu Fan, you ever get that feeling, you know, that one feeling when you look out the window, and you see the city lights and the people, and you just remember a movie? And then everything feels okay? Like nothing can touch you?" Chanyeol said softly.

Wu Fan stopped breathing for a moment. 

How?

How did he know?

"Can I tell you a story?"

"Sure. I guess. I mean, we have to go film-"

"I know, Dragon. Just this one story. And then I'll never say anything about it again."

Wu Fan felt relieved at the sound of his pet name leaving Chanyeol's mouth. He relaxed a little and leant back on his elbows on the bed. Chanyeol met him, lying flat on his back, staring at the ceiling.

"When I was about 15, I figured out that I didn't like girls. I never wanted to marry one. I never wanted to touch one. I never wanted anything of the sort. I told my mom, and she was fine, but when I told my dad, he flipped out. It wasn't good for a long time. He refused not only to acknowledge that I was his son, but that I even existed at all. So, I turned to movies. I would come home from school, where I was the coolest kid in my class, and my dad wouldn't even look up when I walked in the room. Soon, he stopped eating with me and my mom. Then he stopped coming out of his room. I decided I couldn't do that to my mom, so movies were my answer. I was the one who then became locked up of my own accord. I would sit in my room and watch comedies, all night. I didn't sleep soundly for about 3 months. I was insatiable. So, I kept watching and watching, because as long as I watched, I didn't have to face reality in my own house. I could escape and laugh. As long as I could laugh, I was okay. Then I realized that this was what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted people to be happy too, and making movies was the way to do so. I already made people happy at school, since I was the class clown, and no one there knew I didn't like girls, but at home, my happiness was totally reliant on the comedies on my screen. That's why I make movies, Wu Fan. That's why other people's happiness is so important to me. Because I've been there. Because movies can do so much for people and connect them to those who're probably going through some of the same things they're going through. It's how I want to live my life, making people happy. Do you understand now, Wu Fan?" Chanyeol asked the last question with a hint of a sniffle at the end.

Wu Fan laid there for a moment, not knowing if saying anything would do any good.

So instead he grabbed Chanyeol's hand and interlaced his fingers with his own, giving it a slight squeeze.

"You're hands are fucking huge, Dragon." Chanyeol laughed and pulled his hand away from Wu Fan's just in time for Kyungsoo and Jongin to walk into the room.

Both boys sat up and made it look like they were organizing the equipment between them to carry, and Jongin triumphantly jumped on the bed behind the seated boys.

Hands on his hips, chest puffed out, head raised high, he had the pose, that's for sure.

But the costume.

Wu Fan and Chanyeol turned around, both of them bursting into laughter at the sight behind them.

Not only was Jongin only clothed in a pair of black briefs and a cape made from what was formerly Baekhyun's old yellow towel, but Kyungsoo obviously had cotton material stuffed into the front of his red UnderArmour shirt, which was tucked into a pair of green UnderArmour leggings. His cape too was obviously made from an old yellow towel of Baekhyun's, and he was almost reminiscent of Robin, but a lot more dorky, and without the shorts. Each had a mask made from duct tape, which Wu Fan wanted to make sure he stayed around that night to see when they had to take them off, and the screams of pain that were sure to accompany their removal. 

Jongin and Kyungsoo did their various poses as said superheroes, sending the other two boys into fits of laughter, but it wasn't until Baekhyun walked in, dressed as the damsel in distress of the story, in his blonde curly wig and clothing he'd obviously stolen from his girlfriend, that Wu Fan and Chanyeol lost their ability to successfully maintain respiratory system functionality.

It was the leopard print bra that really did it for the two, that and the red lipstick and eyeliner so perfectly applied to the man's face.

"Baekhyunnie~! You're so pretty! You should be a model for Victoria's Secret with a rack like that." Chanyeol said through strained breaths.

"Shit, I don't even know if they'd make bras that fit him there. Dude, is your girlfriend a giant or something?" Wu Fan asked, now leaning on Chanyeol for support.

"Shut up guys! You're just jealous of my voluptuousness." Baekhyun said, moving his hands all around his now overtly feminine exterior.

"And or the record, yes, Wu Fan, she's like 4 inches taller than little baby Baekhyun~" Kyungsoo said, adding a little bit of baby talk to the last part of his sentence, reaching to pinch Baekhyun's cheeks to add to the effect.

"Yah! Are you fucking insane?! You'll ruin my perfect makeup!" Baekhyun said, tossing his yellow hair and pouting his lips.

The boys eventually calmed down, and upon deciding that they could shoot probably half of their footage tonight if they worked diligently, they moved out to their first location.

Wu Fan and Chanyeol carried the majority of the equipment, while Kyungsoo, Jongin, and Baekhyun especially received not so pleased looks from the elderly on the train downtown. Every now and then, Wu Fan would wolf whistle at the group, causing Chanyeol to look over at him in surprise at his mild abandon.

Wu Fan didn't know why he was being this way that night, but it was weird. A good weird though. He liked it. He felt a little happier. He felt as though he didn't have to be as serious about this movie.

Maybe it was Baekhyun in drag?

Maybe it was Jongin and Kyungsoo in their superhero costumes?

He knew though that it was Chanyeol.

Wu Fan had been looking out the window of the train, contemplating his sudden change in emotion, when he felt a pair of eyes on him.

He looked slightly to his right to see Chanyeol just staring at him. His eyes weren't as huge and bewildering as they tended to be. There was a subtle softness to his demeanor. Like he was totally pleased with his life.

"Stare often?" Wu Fan commented, not looking at Chanyeol.

"You're smiling, Wu Fan." Chanyeol replied softly. He smiled a little bit more to himself and turned to face the same window Wu Fan continued to focus on.

"It's nice. I like it." Chanyeol stated, now fully staring out the window with Wu Fan.

Wu Fan felt a hand reach over and grab his own. 

He didn't look over.

He just smiled.


	4. "Wu Fan, you need to leave."

The comfort was unreal.

Wu Fan had never been so at ease when filming something, let alone a dumb fucking superhero movie. He hated them, to be completely honest, but then again, he had hated Chanyeol when he first met him.

That first night of filming was.....indescribable. 

Wu Fan felt alive.

They reached their destination and Wu Fan remembers setting up the camera on the tripod, after which Chanyeol asked him about getting the shot to look, as he called it, "As super wickedly Fritz Lang as you, Dragon", referring to the framing and shadow work.

"Why do you say my footage looks like Fritz Lang's?"

"Cause it's dark, and mysterious, and kind of makes me think you're probably a German cannibal, but your movies are to beautiful for you to eat people in your spare time." Chanyeol said with his face-scrunching smile ever present.

Wu Fan just looked at him. He was both flattered and slightly offended at once, eyebrows furrowing trying to decipher which emotion was the correct one, but he decided to push out the offense and take it more in a flattery sense.

He's pretty sure that's how Chanyeol meant it to sound, but again, it was Chanyeol.

"Here, let me show you. It's all about manual camera settings." Wu Fan began as he walked over to the camera with Chanyeol close behind him, right at his heels.

"What?! Manual settings? Why manual?! If you just press the auto button, everything should work fine, right? That's why they have the auto button. No one takes time to manually set up each shot."

"I do."

"This is why you're a special snowflake, Dragon~" Chanyeol said as he poked Wu Fan's cheeks.

Wu Fan remained stoic in his place. He couldn't let Chanyeol know how close he was to just melting at his presence, his touch.

His cheeks went red.

"Come on. Look, first, set your white balance. Just take a white sheet of paper, hold it in front of the camera so it takes up the frame, and press the manual white balance button." Wu Fan said, handing Chanyeol a piece of paper to use.

Chanyeol took the paper and put it in front of the frame, but then stopped.

"Wait, where's the button?" He asked, scanning the side of his camera with his pointer finger in search of the button.

"It's right here." Wu Fan said, taking the younger's hand and pressing it against the button.

Chanyeol looked up at him, wide-eyed at his sudden movement, and Wu Fan let his hand linger on Chanyeol's, marveling at its bone structure and the utter perfection of said structure. How soft his hands felt in comparison to his own. How there were no calluses on his knuckles. How his nails weren't grimy like the rest of him. How right and warm his hand felt, and even though he had just recently held it on the train there, each time was like the first.

"Dragon, I think I've got this now. And the camera's tweaking because I'm still pushing the button." Chanyeol said in his deep voice.

"Wha-Sorry!" Wu Fan said, quickly retracting his hand.

"Now, since I know how to white balance now, what's next?!" Chanyeol asked, eyes lighting up at the thought of learning Wu Fan's filming prep ritual. He wrung his hands together and looked at Wu Fan with such eagerness, Wu Fan thought Chanyeol would piss himself if he kept him waiting much longer, looking like a 3 year old in daycare who needs to use the restroom at playtime.

Wu Fan relished in his instruction time and taught Chanyeol about zooming, focusing, setting his shutter speed, and setting his gain. Not that he actually led Chanyeol's hand to any of these buttons after his slip up with the white balance, but he desperately wanted to.

He ached for that warmth again.

That night, they filmed about 1/3 of their footage, Chanyeol stuck to Wu Fan's side the entire time as Wu Fan gave stern direction to their actors. Chanyeol would mimic Wu Fan's hand motions, when he would point to something, when he would run his hands through his hair, when he would give signals to the actors to begin the scene, when he would pick up his coffee mug to take another swig of his almost black coffee. Chanyeol was right there at his hip. Wu Fan thought it was cute, but he never let Chanyeol know. 

Over the next couple weeks they filmed the rest of their footage.

It went smoothly most nights, or as smooth as filming with 5 guys hopped up on caffeinated drinks and sugar to stay up and shoot all through the night can go. 

With a few citations from the police for indecent exposure, a couple of scenes which took a while to shoot because of drunken teens yelling at them for being stupid (which Wu Fan quickly took care of by simply walking up to them with his best bitchface on), and a couple of minor injuries to the superheroes due to some dumb stunts set up by Chanyeol without Wu Fan's knowledge, everything finally came down to the final scene.

It was 3:30am, and Kyungsoo was strung up with a rope obviously around his waist. He was floating above the ground, suspended by this rope, as he was at the end of the second take of the scene in which he had to jump from the top of the wall and make his grand exit. The boys all probably could've rigged this a little bit better, but they were having too much fun laughing at Kyungsoo every time the rope caught and he just barely missed the ground with a shout of pain from the rope basically cutting into his waist.

He wasn't going to get seriously injured, and, for all intents and purposes, the boys didn't really need to rig him to a rope since the wall wasn't that tall anyway.

But then again, it was 3:30am.

Jongin stood atop the wall, helping to hoist the dangling Kyungsoo back up to his mark. Kyungsoo scratched with his feet and hands, trying to work his way back up to the top, while Wu Fan set the camera up for the final shot. They had moved from the top of the wall to ground level to get a profile shot of Kyungsoo's falling form. Baekhyun sat off to the side, napping in his drag outfit and making puppy noises, which Chanyeol told Wu Fan about all the time because he thought they were cute.

Wu Fan just hoped the whining wouldn't be caught on the audio track, though in reality he could edit it out later.

But still.

Chanyeol was currently attending to the sleeping Baekhyun when Wu Fan began calling to the two lead actors. Chanyeol quickly sprang up and ran to Wu Fan's side, slipping an arm around his waist, inside his light jacket.

Wu Fan twitched a little at the intrusion, but relaxed as Chanyeol put his head on his shoulder.

This was okay by Wu Fan.

"Alright! You ready guys! This is it!" Wu Fan yelled up to the boys on the wall top. The rope was tied to a telephone pole right next to the wall on the other side, and all Kyungsoo had to do was jump off the wall like he was flying. 

When Wu Fan and Chanyeol first proposed the stunt to Kyungsoo, his eyes, already quite large, grew to about the size of Baekhyun's famous cookies, minus the chocolate chips embedded in the sugary discs. By now though, he was tired enough that a slight pain in his waist in the morning would be nothing compared to the joy he would get from finally being able to sleep like a normal person again.... until finals started anyway.

"COME ON, WU FAN! WE'RE READY!" Jongin yelled back to Wu Fan, slightly shivering from exhaustion and the vague breeze in the air.

Wu Fan took one last look around the area before settling behind the camera to look at the display screen.

The night sky was lit to perfection, even at this late hour.

In the search for the location for this particular scene, Chanyeol and Wu Fan went on a late night adventure into the city. They took notes on streets and angles on said streets for camera positioning and framing of figures in the shot in relation to the buildings. Everything was extremely detailed, something Chanyeol wasn't used to doing for a shoot. He did his best though, taking notes, well, mostly drawing pictures of puppies and cars and rainbows in his notebook, with the occasional dragon of course. Wu Fan looked at Chanyeol most of the time while the younger drew diligently in his notebook, trying to make it look like he was taking decent notes, but Wu Fan knew better. He silently admired the boy, trying to memorize the features of his face and how they would change as he experienced different emotions.

His favorite by far was when Chanyeol was just simply content.

All of his features softened, but they retained an edge, a natural sort of edge inherent in Chanyeol's being.

That was what made Wu Fan weak at the knees.

They walked for hours, talking about the most random of things, from the river, to the friendship bracelet Chanyeol had made Baekhyun out of doll hair, to the number of licks it'd take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. It all ended though when Chanyeol stopped walking in the middle of the road, around 3am, and Wu Fan just looked back at him, stopping in his path to get to the other side of the road.

He sighed.

Chanyeol just stood there, center of the street, jaw hanging low, eyes brighter than Wu Fan had ever seen them, just staring at this wall.

"Chanyeol, what the fuck are you looking at? You're gonna get us run over by a semi-truck, you idiot-"

"Dragon! Look at this!" Chanyeol pointed eagerly at the grey mass in front of them.

"Look at what?! IT'S A WALL." Wu Fan said through gritted teeth. This was not really happening to him right now, at 3am, on a deserted street.

"IT'S NOT A WALL THOUGH." Chanyeol yelled looking back at Wu Fan, who had now started walking back to meet the younger boy.

"YES. I THINK THAT'S A WALL, CHANYEOL. PRETTY SURE. IT'S MADE OF STONE. PAINTED GREY. HAS SOME SPRAY PAINT ON IT. DOESN'T HAVE A DOOR LEADING TO AN INTERIOR. SEEMS PRETTY SOLID. YEP. ALL OF THESE ARE WALL TRAITS." Wu Fan pointed to various areas of the wall to prove his point, getting angrier by the second.

Why did he like this boy again?

"NO, IT-"

"PARK FUCKING CHANYEOL, COME ON. WE NEED TO GET OUT OF THE STREET. WE'RE GONNA GET KILLED."

"BY WHAT?! ALL THESE CARS?!" Chanyeol yelled back, opening his arms to the emptiness surrounding them.

"WHAT IF A DRUNK COMES OUT OF NOWHERE! WE COULD DIE!"

"WU FAN. LOOK~~~" Chanyeol said again, now writhing in his place, jumping up and down.

"I AM LOOKING, CHANYEOL!" Wu Fan said, now turning away from the wall. He knew what was there. He'd seen it for the past couple of minutes. The wall was still there. It wouldn't change when he turned away from it to begin his trek back across the crosswalk. It was too late for this shit. Wu Fan was getting tired and grumpy and he wanted to go home if Chanyeol was going to be like this.

"NO. LOOK~" Chanyeol said pointing to the wall. Wu Fan still didn't understand what was happening. Why the fuck was he looking at this wall?!

Wu Fan could just feel the bitchiness on his face and the absolute disbelief at the fact that he was arguing with this boy he liked in the middle of the road in the middle of the night over some..........stupid.......................wall...................

Wu Fan turned back around again, after almost reaching the other sidewalk, and while looking at said wall again he realized what Chanyeol had meant.

It wasn't a wall.

It was the perfect view.

The perfect picture.

The perfect location for the final shot of their movie.

He had to take in the bigger picture, not just part of it.

The cityscape was breathtaking.

The building fit together like a puzzle, but tapered just right.

Everything about it was awesome.

Wu Fan was awestruck, and in the middle of his gaping at the scene, Chanyeol put an arm around the older boy's shoulders, bringing him into his side.

Nothing could get better than that moment there, together.

Wu Fan reminisced about that moment as soon as he yelled "ACTION!" to the boys on that wall. 

He was back next to Chanyeol in the middle of the street, in the wee hours of the morning, doing what he loved most, with a boy he was in love with.

The scene was finished in the blink of an eye.

"CUT! THAT'S A WRAP ON 'CAPTAIN BRIEFS VS. SPANDEX MAN'!" Wu Fan yelled as he stopped the camera from recording. 

Kyungsoo was flailing in excitement, suspended in midair by the rope, as Jongin was dancing on the top of the wall in his costume.

Baekhyun was barely awake, but he was clapping nonetheless as he sat on the ground in a pile of equipment bags.

And Chanyeol and Wu Fan high fived each other, smiling and whooping as they did so.

But suddenly, Wu Fan pulled the younger boy into a hug.

He grabbed his wrist and just fucking went for it.

The warmth of Chanyeol's body in contrast to the cool April breeze was exhilarating for Wu Fan, who was just now realizing what he'd done.

He was smiling so hard his face hurt, but when Chanyeol hugged back, his face dropped and he tried to pull away.

This only caused Chanyeol to pull tighter onto the boy he was now attached to, nuzzling into his shoulder.

"Dragon, we did it! We filmed our first movie! Thank you so much for helping me." Chanyeol whispered into Wu Fan's ear.

Everything was right in that moment, and Wu Fan never wanted it to end.

His smile came right back to his face.

The boys all shared a group hug once Chanyeol and Wu Fan had broken apart, and Jongin had freed Kyungsoo from his rope prison. They celebrated, carrying all the equipment and walking back to their dorm in their costumes, hollering the whole way. Chanyeol even bought snow cones for the boys, because snow cones were his favorite, and so he obviously assumed everyone else would want one as well.

"They're so fun! Snow that tastes good!? And you don't have to try and catch little flakes on your tongue! It's all right here in front of you. Come on, how can you not like it?~" Chanyeol's logic went as such when Baekhyun questioned as to why they were getting snow cones at 4am.

The boys eventually made it back to the dorm, and Wu Fan had decided to stay the night as he had done the other nights when they'd been filming.

With a big "thank you" from Wu Fan and Chanyeol, Kyungsoo and Jongin made their way back to their dorm room, while Baekhyun simply fell face first into the white sofa in the living room, not realizing he was still caked in make-up. 

Wu Fan and Chanyeol decided he could clean it up in the morning.

Chanyeol brushed his teeth and slipped out of his jeans, leaving him in his boxers and t-shirt, Wu Fan opting for a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie as he got cold when he slept.

The two made it to Chanyeol's bed and just laid there next to each other, not initially speaking of anything.

They were silent, until Chanyeol spoke up.

"It's over, Wu Fan. Can you believe it?!" Chanyeol said, not looking at his comrade, but up at the ceiling. His hands were folded across his stomach, and Wu Fan's arms held his head as he rested on a pillow. This provided Chanyeol room to lie right next to Wu Fan, never detaching from the warmth of his side.

"It's weird. Now we have to edit for the next month, but that's nothing compared to filming. Editing won't take long at all. I'm too goo-I mean we're too good at editing anyway, so it's not an issue."

"You're right. Plus, we filmed some really great stuff. I really liked the scene when we had Jongin and Kyungsoo save Baekhyun from the top of the building. That was great. They did so well."

"Mhmmmm. I'm glad they had fun. They seemed pretty comfortable, even if Kyungsoo did freak out when we told him he'd be the one to win in the end. Did he expect to lose? Did he not even read the script? I don't know. Kid is weird."

"But I'm weird too!"

"This is true."

"I'm the weirdest, right?"

"I'd say so, actually. If there were a weird contest, you'd be first prize no problem."

"Good. I want to be first prize if you're giving awards."

"Speaking of, you remembered to film that award ceremony scene, right? While I was home sick? You had to film it with the guys here in your apartment...."

Chanyeol didn't make a peep.

The air grew dense.

"Pinky........."

Still silence.

Sonofabitch.

"Park Chanyeol. Please tell me you filmed that scene while I was gone." Wu Fan said, now sitting up and looking over at his partner.

"Uhm.......Well, you see. This raptor came into the dorm room and kidnapped me for a couple hours and wouldn't let me leave the arcade, so-"

"YOU SPENT THAT ENTIRE 3 DAYS AT THE ARCADE?!" Wu Fan said, situating himself to directly face the younger boy.

Chanyeol slowly moved up to a seated position to face Wu Fan.

He looked afraid, but he kept trying to smile, never intentionally relenting to the booming yells of Wu Fan.

The room seemed to grow smaller, and Wu Fan was finding it hard to breathe.

He was enraged.

This was not happening.

They had to have the equipment back by 7am, and it took an hour by transit to get the equipment to the loan room. And with everyone asleep and presumably changed, and the amount of time it'd take to set up with it now being 5am.........well, it was impossible.

No.

Chanyeol couldn't be that stupid.

"Wu Fan, we've got a lot of extra footage. We can work around this. It's fine-" Chanyeol tried to plead with Wu Fan, reaching over to grab his hand, but Wu Fan shot straight up off the bed and began to pace in front of Chanyeol. His hands were wringing his long strands of dark blonde hair, and Chanyeol didn't move an inch.

"NO. IT'S NOT FINE. HOW THE FUCK ARE WE GOING TO HAVE BAEKHYUN KIDNAPPED AND TAKEN TO THE TOP OF THE GODDAMN BUILDING IN THE FILM IF THE SCENE WASN'T FUCKING FILMED?!"

"I DON'T KNOW, BUT WE CAN FIGURE IT OUT!"

Wu Fan stopped in his tracks and turned directly to Chanyeol, hands making stern movements in accordance with his argument.

"NO, WE CAN'T. BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE TIME. WE HAVE TO TURN IN THIS RAW FOOTAGE TOMORROW NIGHT IN CLASS, AND WE'RE MISSING A HUGE SCENE." 

"I'M SORRY. I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO, WU FAN! I DIDN'T MEAN TO FUCK UP." Chanyeol yelled back, throwing his hands into his hair and letting his head sink to his knees, now pulled into his chest. He then covered his ears, and refused to look up.

Wu Fan's tone grew darker than the night surroundings they filmed in at that moment.

"That's right. You never mean to fuck up but you always do. Somehow. I don't get it. You're all over the place, Chanyeol. You forget some things, and then others you remember. It's only what's important to you at that given moment. Otherwise you're useless. Do you even remember my name?"

"Your name is Wu Fan." Chanyeol barely looked up. His eyes were now wet with tears, and his nose was running down his beautiful face, but Wu Fan was no longer able to acknowledge that beauty at the moment as he was blind with rage.

"RIGHT-O. DING DING DING. WE HAVE A WINNER GUYS. SOMEONE REMEMBERED SOMETHING. FINALLY. SOMETHING RELATED TO SCHOOL. SOMETHING RELATED TO THE REST OF HUMANITY. SOMETHING RELATED TO HIS GRADE IN THE CLASS."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, RIGHT NOW WU FAN. YOU'RE RIGHT BACK TO THIS GRADE BULLSHIT. I CALLED IT IN THE BEGINNING AND I WAS RIGHT. BUT YOU AND YOUR FUCKING SMOOTH-TALK MADE ME CHANGE MY MIND. OBVIOUSLY I'M AN IDIOT-" Chanyeol screamed through his sobs, Wu Fan still not catching on to how upset he was making Chanyeol. This only made it worse for the younger boy.

All he'd wanted to do was make Wu Fan happy with this project and get closer to him, especially since he'd been nursing a crush on him all year, but no.

His heart was breaking right in front of him.

Chanyeol thought at that moment that he would never wish this pain on anyone, ever.

"THAT'S RIGHT. YOU ARE AN IDIOT. A USELESS FUCKING IDIOT. NO ONE HAS ANY USE FOR YOU, AT ALL. YOU'RE MESSY AND UNKEMPT AND YOU MAKE DUMB JOKES THAT NO ONE THINKS IS FUNNY. YOU DON'T MAKE OTHER PEOPLE HAPPY AND YOU NEVER WILL, CHANYEOL. DO YOU HEAR ME? NEVER. I'M OVER IT. YOU'RE NO FUCKING HAPPY VIRUS, OKAY? YOU NEVER HAVE BEEN AND YOU NEVER WILL BE. YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT, LET ALONE MAKE OTHER PEOPLE SMILE-"

"Get out."

"WHY? WHY SHOULD I?"

"Get the fuck out. Now, Wu Fan. You can take this project, and edit it, and put my name on it too, but I don't ever want to talk to you again."

Wu Fan could see again.

He finally saw what he'd been doing to Chanyeol as the boy now sat on the bed, heaving from sobs, but trying to remain composed enough to tell Wu Fan to leave.

Wu Fan wanted to puke.

"Pinky-" he started as he sat down on the window ledge, just looking at Chanyeol.

He really couldn't breathe.

Chanyeol was a mess and he didn't know what to do.

No one that beautiful should cry like that.

"Don't fucking call me that."

"Chanyeol-"

"I told you to fucking leave, now get the hell out, Wu Fan." Chanyeol choked out a sob, shooting up from his bed, bounding over to Wu Fan, who was still seated at the window, and hovering over him.

A few teardrops fell onto Wu Fan's hands.

"Wu Fan, you need to leave." Baekhyun said sternly from the doorway.

How long had he been there?

Wu Fan looked at Baekhyun in confusion and then back up to Chanyeol, who now leered over him, panting and......his eyes.....he looked like he wanted to die.

Had Wu Fan caused him to feel that way?

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

"NOW!~" Baekhyun yelled from the doorway.

Wu Fan sprang to his feet immediately and grabbed his keys, wallet, and the SD cards with the footage on them as he bolted out of the room, past Baekhyun in the doorway, and slammed the dorm door behind him.

Once down the hall by the stairs, he heard Chanyeol scream. Just a scream. But he felt all of the pain he'd caused the boy in that single scream.

He couldn't take it.

He flew down the eight flights of stairs to the ground level and out the door. His feet were carrying him down alleys and through streets, and the sun was just beginning to rise. Soon enough, he made it to the river. He stopped right at the edge of one of the dock points.

The water sloshed against the concrete right beneath him and the sky grew lighter in its pinky, orange sheen.

Little by little, the darkness in the sky faded.

He dropped to his knees and screamed, much like Chanyeol had screamed.

He let everything out.

Poured all that he had into the scream now leaving his body and joining the air in space.

He fucked up.

Wu Fan had fucked up big time.

He loved Park Chanyeol.

He loved him more than he could even tell anyone, including Chanyeol himself.

But Chanyeol didn't know for sure.

And now Wu Fan fucked up any chance of that happening in the future.

A future that could've been a little happier.

A future that could've been a little brighter.

A future that could've been a little more worth living.

But now he felt empty.

He wept 

He hadn't wept in years.

Not since his dad left his mom for another woman.

He had almost forgotten what this felt like.

He looked at the sunrise in front of him through misty eyes.

The lights in all the buildings were shutting off right before him.

 

The only light in his life was gone now.

He'd shut off like the lights in the buildings.

 

 

Wu Fan needed to find a way to turn it back on.

But that plan would come later.

Right now, Wu Fan needed to be alone.


	5. Turn the Lights On

"Because I need him, Baekhyun. I need him more than I've ever needed anyone in my entire life."

"......................Be over in 20. Then you have a half hour to talk to me, but that's it. I'll send him out to go buy milk. It'll take him that long to pick between pink cap and blue cap."

Wu Fan had to chuckle at that.

Typical Chanyeol.

"Thanks Baekhyun."

"Don't thank me yet. I'll see you soon."

"Bye-" Wu Fan began, but the line cut off, leaving him with a dial tone on his phone.

Wu Fan leant back against the seat of his couch and let his phone drop from his hand

This was progress. A lot of progress from where he was last week  
It had been bad.

Really, really bad.

He turned in the raw footage to Professor Jung, but Chanyeol didn't show up to class that night. Nor the next 2 classes. And Wu Fan couldn't help but worry.

Wu Fan spent the majority of his time these days watching old Charlie Chaplin movies

His favorite being City Lights

Something about watching old silent movies made Wu Fan feel immensely better.

Like himself.

Not like the dragon that Chanyeol saw a couple weeks ago. He didn't want Chanyeol to experience that. Ever. But he did. And now he had to fix it.

He almost preferred silent movies because the focus was so much on the image.

What was superficial....

What was on the outside.

Wu Fan had grown so used to protecting what was on the inside that his outside grew cold and impenetrable. 

Well, impenetrable to everyone but Chanyeol.

If people just focused on his exterior, no one could look inside and possibly hurt him.

He didn't want to be hurt, not like his mom was hurt. That was the last thing he wanted.

So, instead he fought, and kept fighting.

He needed to stop.

He knew he needed to stop, but he didn't know how, nor did he have a reason to until about 6 weeks ago.

Sure, it'd escalated more quickly than he'd anticipated, but even Wu Fan, for all the movies he'd watched, couldn't predict love.

His apartment had become a black hole. The lights never once turned on. He let food grow stale in the open air of his bedroom. His bed had become his safe haven, and his TV and DVD player were his comforts. His eyes were dark and sunken, he ached through his entire body, and most days he could barely breathe. In addition, he kept missing classes in order to sleep during the day, as his insomnia overtook his nights with watching movies.

He kept searching through all of these silent movies that made him feel a little more like himself for an answer to his problems.

Would Chanyeol do the same?

Would Chanyeol go running to his comedies for solace?

Wu Fan didn't see an alternative. Of course he would, right?

But then again, how much could he truly know about Chanyeol and his life for the past 2 weeks when the boy was nowhere to be found?

The only thing he could guarantee was that Chanyeol was in much more pain than he, and he hated himself for that.

It wasn't until the night before he called Baekhyun at 7:30am that Wu Fan had his epiphany.

His understanding of the twisting of the knots in his stomach and how the fuck to fix them, yes, but more importantly he now knew how to fix Chanyeol.

Miraculously, it wasn't a silent film that did so.

It was a more recent film by Bernardo Bertolucci calle The Dreamers.

It starred Louis Garrel, Eve Green, and Michael Pitt, and took place in late 1960s Paris.

As stupidly typical as it was, Wu Fan thought, his moment came at the end of the film, when Michael Pitt gives his speech against violent protest of the war and the cinematheque closings.

"We don't do this. We don't use violence. No. It's not what's about outside. We don't use guns and molotovs, we kiss and make love. That's what we do. This isn't how you win people over. This doesn't do anything for anyone. We use cinema, we use love, not mindless violence, guys!" Michael Pitt yelled (to some extent) on Wu Fan's screen, grabbing Louis Garrel and kissing him to prove his point. Louis Garrel and Eva Green then exit the screen to continue their protesting, but Wu Fan just sat there, in his bed under his blankets, 6:30am, gaping. 

Of course, the movie was meant to be directly critiquing the methods of protest put on by Parisians during the time, as Bertolucci was infamous for his anti-violent stance, but somehow, this time around the line meant so much more to Wu Fan.

The entire time, he'd been using violence in the form of him not letting anyone in. He used a harsh exterior and venomous words to keep himself safe, but that doesn't do anything helpful for anyone in any situation, especially the person exhibiting these traits. Moreso, this totally affects those around him in less than appealing ways, causing them direct harm from the abrasive actions. There is no spontaneity in any of this violence. It is planned, strategized to the most minute detail, so as to prove a prowess and lack of vulnerability.

Love is the exact opposite. Love is spontaneous. Love is extremely vulnerable. Love provides more positive effects than an act of violence could ever give 

Chanyeol was Wu Fan's spontaneity, vulnerability, positivity. He was his reason to believe in something and let down his violent guard.

And Wu Fan finally fucking understood that after so many weeks of being confused.

Of course, to most others watching the movie, it'd just seem like some hippie bullshit, as Wu Fan had previously thought, but now it took on a different meaning.

He sat there on his bed for the next hour, trying to process in his mind what he just realized, not moving an inch until he bolted to his living room, jumped to sit on his couch where his phone had been left for the past couple weeks, and dialed Baekhyun's number.

As he leant back after the conversation ended and let the phone drop to the floor, he saw his floor lamp next to him.

He reached up and turned the switch til the lightbulb lit the corner of the room.

It was a start.

The light in Wu Fan's life was slowly coming back to him.

\------------------------------------------------

He made it to Baekhyun and Chanyeol's dorm apparently right after Chanyeol had left down the stairs, as Baekhyun was peering around the doorway and the stairway door was just closing.

So close...

Wu Fan watched the door as he exited the elevator, but then quickly broke from his total gut desire to run down the stairs and chase him to turn to the doorway and look at Baekhyun.

"30 mintues." Baekhyun said with a glare, disappearing behind the doorway.

Wu Fan walked to said doorway and entered the house.

The intoxicating smell hadn't left at all, but there was something different about the atmosphere.

Like it wasn't nearly as joyful as it'd been a couple weeks ago.

Wu Fan knew he was the cause.

Baekhyun sat at the kitchen table, leaning back in his chair, and sipping his coffee, giving Wu Fan a glare the entire time.

"I'm not offering you food or anything to drink, so don't expect it. My girlfriend's over too, so you should try not to scream this time." He said, venom extremely evident with each syllable.

Wu Fan smirked a bit and sat down. He expected nothing less from Baekhyun at this point. Not a damn thing less.

Before saying anything, he decided it'd be best to let Baekhyun talk first.

"You could start by saying sorry."

"I'm sorry." Wu Fan repeated, not looking up from his hands now folded on the table. His knuckles were raw and his mouth ran dry. What the fuck was he going to say? He honestly hadn't planned anything out to say before coming over, and now he wasn't so sure it was a good idea.

"I'm glad you came over, Wu Fan."

"What?!" He looked up in confusion as he responded.

"Because I have some things to say to you." Baekhyun said, placing his mug on the table. He looked about ready to deck Wu Fan, and honestly he had every right to. Wu Fan had basically destroyed his eternally chipper best friend into a pile of joyless ash.

"Okay."

"First off, you're an asshole. I don't understand how the fuck Chanyeol became friends with you, but it was the dumbest fucking thing in the world. He's not an asshole in the least, and somehow he attracted one right into his side."

"It was just supposed to be a project."

"Shut up. I'm not nearly finished. Second, I have never seen him more upset in my life, and I'm not able to fix it. Do you know how hard that is? To live with someone so ungodly fucking ecstatic over the simplest of things, like the mirror in the bathroom opening up to a medicine cabinet, just drop into a huge state of nothingness, and not be able to do anything to comfort him? The worst part? He smiles constantly when he's out of the house. Anyone who doesn't know him like you or I or Kyungsoo and Jongin would think he was totally fine, that nothing was bothering him. But as soon as he steps through the door, he just stops. Everything drops. That Happy Virus? Obviously you were the fucking cure for the virus because now it's gone."

"He's not doing as bad as I thought then-"

"REALLY?! What would qualify 'as bad as you thought', Wu Fan? Cause I'd say hearing my best friend cry himself to sleep every night is actually worse than you thought~ And like I said, I can't fix it. I went into his room and slept on his floor for the first couple nights, actually, one night I slept in his bed, but he didn't do anything. He didn't talk to me. He didn't ask for help. He just waited til he thought I was asleep and proceeded to cry."

Wu Fan was silent. He didn't know what to say, and well, there wasn't anything he could say. He had to sit and take it.

"The most disgusting part of all this, Wu Fan? You totally have the ability to fix this." Baekhyun said, giving Wu Fan a smug look over the edge of his coffee cup.

Wu Fan's eyes shot up in surprise.

"What do you mean?" Wu Fan's voice was shaking along with his hands. Maybe it was lack of sleep and proper nutrition, but the knots in his stomach said otherwise.

"Chanyeol didn't say anything to me about it except for the morning you left after your argument. He told me that he knew you didn't mean it and that he knows he was irresponsible. He said he also knows that you can fix this, but it has to be you. You needed to figure out what you wanted and what you needed, and Chanyeol knew that, willing to wait like he's waited all year to get an opportunity to talk to you-"

"WHAT?"

"Wu Fan, you're fucking dense. Chanyeol's had a crush on you this entire year. Really. He'd come back every Thursday night after class and just talk about you for hours. How great your movies were, how much he enjoyed listening to you talk, how handsome he thought you were, and how he thought it could actually be him to break you down."

Wu Fan didn't hold back. Hot tears ran down the sides of his cheeks as they had for the past 2 weeks solid. The sensory feeling wasn't new, but the feeling in his heart was. How had he not known? How in the world did he ignore this for so long? Chanyeol had liked him for so long, and he'd been too ignorant, too worried about himself and how he looked to other people to understand anyone else's feelings in the world.

His words he had spit at Chanyeol that night were backfiring on him.

It was he who was ignorant to everything else in the world and other people.

It was he who was only immediately concerned with his own needs.

His built up anger against himself was piled onto the most vulnerable person in that moment, and it was Chanyeol.

Chanyeol who fucking loved him.

"Are you going to fix this, Wu Fan?" Baekhyun asked. He was eyeing the taller man up quite seriously. He knew the impending answer, but he wanted to hear it for himself. Baekhyun wasn't even doing this for himself. He just wanted his best friend to be happy again, like he deserved to be.

He missed his smile.

"I'll fix it." Wu Fan replied, then using his jacket sleeves to wipe his face.

"EW~ You can be an animal on your own time at your apartment, but not in mine. Here, take this kleenex." Baekhyun said, grabbing a kleenex from the counter behind him and passing it to Wu Fan, judging him the entire time.

Wu Fan chuckled a bit.

"Thanks. Baekhyun. But how do I fix it? I know I can, and I know I need to, but I don't know how." Wu Fan asked.

"Shit, he's gonna be back soon, you should go." Baekhyun said at hearing his girlfriend rustle around in the other room getting ready for class, and then his glance shot over at the clock on the stove.

Wu Fan got up and Baekhyun rushed him to the door, pushing him outside from behind with his hands dug into Wu Fan's back. Wu Fan turned around once outside the dorm and looked at Baekhyun.

"Thanks, Baekhyun." 

"For what?"

"For ripping me a new asshole."

"Anytime. Now you should-"

"But what do I do?!" Wu Fan asked as Baekhyun gave him a last shove down the hall toward the stairs. Wu Fan stopped halfway in the doorway to the stairwell.

"Get creative, Wu Fan. Be spontaneous." Baekhyun said with a wink, disappearing into the dorm room. 

The door clicked shut and Wu Fan turned to walk down the stairwell.

Then the elevator dinged.

Wu Fan froze.

Eyes gaping.

Heart caught in his throat.

His shaking got worse.

As did the knot in his stomach.

He wanted to throw up.

The stairwell was a little ways down from the elevators, just enough to where an oblivious human going the opposite direction wouldn't know if anyone were behind him.

And that's what happened as Chanyeol exited the elevator.

If it were possible, he looked more unkempt than before. His hair was darker. His posture more haggard. His body leant to one side as he carried the milk in his left hand, fumbling for his keys in the other. He almost reeked of old flamin' hot cheetos and cookies, but that wasn't much of a stretch from his regular, unbathed stench. 

Wu Fan subconsciously reached out in attempt to grab his hoodie sleeve, but he stopped himself, realizing not only was he too far away, but that Chanyeol would probably deck him if he knew he was there.

Wu Fan felt his heart breaking in two.

The younger boy made it to his door, and began to bring his head up to instinctively look around the hallway.

Wu Fan slipped behind the stairwell doorway, intending to leave as he reached the first step, but he paused.

His eyes lit up.

"Be spontaneous........ Alright, Chanyeol. This time it's for you..." Wu Fan said to himself, as he walked down the stairs and out of the dorm.

When he got back to his apartment, he took out his laptop and began typing furiously, the header being "NEW EDITING PLAN FOR FINAL PROJECT."

He turned on his big living room light a moment later.

Slow but sure...

\----------------------------------------------

Chanyeol turned to his left and saw the stairwell door swinging shut.

He smiled quietly to himself.

When he got into the apartment, he set down the milk on the counter.

"You weren't too mean, were you?" Chanyeol asked the seated Baekhyun as he leant against the counter.

"Nope. I just told him the truth." Baekhyun said plainly, biting into his cheese covered bagel.

"And?"

"I still don't get why you still like him? How the hell is he going to fix this?" 

"Because he can. He just needs to figure out how. He's smart."

"But he was so fucking mean to you, Chanyeol."

"I know."

"I don't get it."

"Neither do I."

"What?"

"I don't get it either, but if there's one thing I know, Baekhyunnie, it's that you can't plan love." Chanyeol said, smirking as he walked toward his room.

"I think I'll take a shower now."

"Oh my god. Wu Fan, please hurry and fix this." Baekhyun said in reply to the outlandish statement, facepalming in the process.

Chanyeol smiled and proceeded into the bathroom.

\------------------------------------------------

Wu Fan sat up that morning, typing for about 4 hours solid, planning everything as detailed as he could......

Then he deleted the entire document.

Gone.

He was finished with this.

He was going to be spontaneous, for Chanyeol.

This led him to the media lab, where he would spend the next week.

Wu Fan edited like he'd never edited before that week. Hours upon hours spent staring at the computer screen, dragging, dropping footage into various places. Adding cross fades and transitions. Audio adjustments and color fixes. Everything was coming together.

It would all be worth it soon.

And each night, when Wu Fan would arrive home, he'd turn on one more light than he had the previous day. 

Finally the night of the final project submissions came, and Wu Fan went to class, head held high. 

He had done it.

He'd found the way to fix he and Chanyeol's relationship, as broken as it was.

The room was filled with the bustle of everyone murmuring about their final projects, how they thought they sucked, how they thought Professor Jung was just going to laugh at them (which was probably an accurate prediction), how they couldn't wait to just have the screening over with.

Chanyeol was booming back at his original station, girls still flocking to him with his magnetic personality. 

It reminded Wu Fan of a time when things were much simpler, before he'd hurt the brightest person in the room.

Wu Fan looked around, and then his eyes finally settled on his phone in front of him.

He hadn't heard from Chanyeol at all in concerns with the project. Chanyeol wasn't lying when he said Wu Fan could just do it himself.

"Alright, kids! Let's get going! A lot to see today, a lot for us to enjoy, who wants to go first?" Professor Jung said, as he practically skipped into the room with his messenger bag and sunglasses.

There was an audible collective swoon from the girls in the class.

It never failed.

Wu Fan sat silently in his seat, watching others around him raise his hand. Chanyeol was not one of them though. He just kept his smile plastered to his face and talked to a girl next to him.

Wu Fan knew things weren't okay, but they would be soon.

Chanyeol's eyes weren't as bright as normal, and his face just seemed to be darker all around, but, like Baekhyun said, no one would know if they didn't know him well enough.

9 movies were played. Wu Fan grew a little more tense as each ended.

Had he made a mistake?

What if he failed?

No, that's impossible. Professor Jung loved his work.

Then he caught himself.

No. 

Tonight was about Chanyeol, and only Chanyeol 

"Alright Wu Fan von Trier, let's go. You and Chanyeol are the grand finale." Professor Jung joked with Wu Fan as he went to hook up his hard drive to the main computer.

The comment put Wu Fan on edge.

He plugged his hard drive in and opened the proper folder, thereby starting the movie program for himself.

He looked back over his shoulder at Chanyeol once, and the younger was still talking to another classmate.

"Chanyeol, are you just gonna sit back there while your movie plays?" Professor Jung asked, throwing a marker at the chatty boy in back.

"Yeah, hyung. I'll let Wu Fan take care of it. He's got it. Fighting, Wu Fan!" Chanyeol said, raising is hand and tightening his lips.

Wu Fan received the gesture, but knew there was nothing behind it for him in reality.

Here goes nothing....

He clicks play.

The screen brightens a little, frame by frame.

Wu Fan stares at the screen, though he can feel the holes being bored through his back by a certain lanky guy in the back of the room.

The title screen comes up.

"CAPTAIN BRIEFS VS. SPANDEX MAN: A Film by Park Chanyeol and Wu Fan".

The title screen dissolved into the first shot, which was of course a sweeping cityscape shot that they filmed around 1:30am. It was beautiful, and got audible gasps from their classmates. 

Where Wu Fan would've appreciated this before, now it just made him sick to his stomach.

Then suddenly, Chanyeol's face appeared from the bottom of the screen, right into the shot, smiling like a fiend.

Wu Fan smiled in reaction.

No one had been expecting this.

There was then a cut to another shot, the second one to be edited into the sequence, and it too had an off quality about it.

Every single shot was abnormal in some way.

Whether the angling be off, or the dialogue messed up, or at one point there was even just a shot of Chanyeol and Jongin just dancing around in the middle of the street.

Somehow though, Wu Fan had created a comedy out of all of this. 

A comedy-based documentary about their project.

It was genius.

And the main objective, to make people laugh.

To beckon happiness from those who saw it, something Wu Fan had never done before.

A shot of Kyungsoo jumping from the wall, and then the profile shot of him falling and being caught by the totally visible rope on his waist was toward the end of the film and everyone was in tears by that point.

Chanyeol was even laughing.

And that was music to Wu Fan's ears.

The final shot was of Wu Fan and Chanyeol dancing around at the end of the movie and hugging, which Chanyeol didn't know was being filmed, nor honestly did Wu Fan at the time, but Baekhyun later admitted that he filmed it for posterity, to show that Wu Fan wasn't a totally impenetrable wall of cold-hearted bitchiness.

Wu Fan's eyes began to swell slightly at the sight.

He longed for that reality again.

He longed for it so bad it physically pained him.

He knew now what he wanted.

He knew that this was the way to get it.

He had to stop being so selfish and reach out for that connectivity to others that movies provided through the sheer enjoyment that could incite from audiences.

He needed to prove to Chanyeol that he knew he was wrong, and that he wanted him back.

This comedy was the way to do so.

The final credits rolled, and they ended with a short statement.

 

For Pinky, this is my attempt to fix everything I fucked up. I hope you find happiness in this movie, just as I've found my happiness in you. I'm sorry. Love Dragon.

 

It was short. It was meaningful. It didn't hold nearly enough in it to fully express Wu Fan's heartfelt apologies he wished to express to Chanyeol, but it was a start.

And no one would know what it meant, but Wu Fan and Chanyeol.

Everyone clapped uproariously at the end of the film, Professor Jung taking the critic's standpoint,

"You boys did well! I like the approach, something different. Something fresh. Good job. But, I don't quite get the end statement, but I hope Pinky forgives Dragon. Everyone take a break, get some water, we'll meet back here in 15 minutes for food and your final comments about any of the movies we've seen tonight." Professor Jung said as the kids began filing out of the classroom.

Wu Fan couldn't take anymore and bolted from the room, rounding the corner, and sitting in a small side hallway, head in his hands, tears now streaming down his silently sobbing face.

He'd put so much work into it and it was done.

It was all up to Chanyeol now, and he couldn't help but be overwhelmed with so many emotions.

Helplessness, anxiousness, exhaustion, happiness, love...

A soft kiss graced the top of his ponytail styled hair.

He wasn't sure it was real.

It couldn't be real.

Wu Fan slowly raised his head from his hands and looked up through heavy lids to see a smiling face that had been absent from his life for much too long.

Chanyeol smiled down at the boy he just kissed.

Wu Fan couldn't move.

Chanyeol got down in front of him and placed his hands atop Wu Fan's now lying on his knees.

"What're you doing?" Wu Fan asked quietly, almost as if he couldn't bear to hear the reply.

"I liked that movie, Dragon. I really felt a connection to whoever made it..." Chanyeol replied with a smile.

Wu Fan felt his heart beat faster than he's ever known it to feel before.

Blood rushing, hyper alert to everything around him.

He couldn't say anything.

So he got up to walk away, not wanting to make a fool of himself any longer.

Chanyeol reached out for his wrist and caught hold, pulling the older back to face him.

His hands immediately went to Wu Fan's cheeks, holding his head in place so he couldn't look away.

"Chanyeol, I can't. I know you can't forgive-"

"You think too much, Dragon. Your face scrunches when you do, and it looks funny."

"Chanyeol-"

"But I like it. I want to keep seeing it. But don't think too much, Dragon, otherwise everyone will leave by the time you find what you're looking for in that noggin of yours."

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"I don't really know. I think I heard Baekhyun say it once when he was thinking of books to quote or something for a project."

"Really now."

"What I do know is that I'm right here in front of you. I should've told you sooner about me liking you for so long, but I just got kind of weird around you. I'm not really that smooth. But-"

"I'm sorry, Chanyeol. I'm so fucking sorry." Wu Fan said, trying to pull his head to the side, tears now flowing down his cheeks again, but Chanyeol continued to hold him in place and smile.

"You didn't let me finish, Dragon. I was going to say how we both needed time to figure out what we needed, and that it was probably a good thing we stopped talking for so long."

"But I was horrible to you."

"You were. And it hurt. A lot. I'm still not totally better and I won't be for a while, but I realized how much I actually kind of love you."

"Kind of love me?!"

"I know, it's gross, but I think it'll be okay since I'm with you. Maybe one day even I'll totally love you. Or something."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying you better just kiss me before I change my mind, you dumb animal-" Chanyeol barely finished before Wu Fan grabbed his neck and pressed his lips hard into Chanyeol's own.

Everything they'd both built up over the course of this project, good and bad, was put into that kiss. There wasn't a single aspect of it that lacked any sort of emotion. 

If that wasn't perfection, Wu Fan didn't know what was.

Chanyeol pulled away slightly, leaving his nose touching Wu Fan's.

"You should stick around and keep making me happy, Dragon."

"I think I can do that." We Fan whispered.

 

 

 

 

All the lights had finally turned back on in Wu Fan's life.


End file.
